FIG. 1 illustrates a buffering of a host data object (“HDO”) within a host data buffer 11 of a host 10 for purposes of being individually processed for storage as storage data object (“SDO”) (i.e., a processed version of host data object HDO) in a storage medium 40. The processing by host 10 of host data object HDO includes a writing of its corresponding storage data object SDO to a storage data buffer 21 of a storage control unit 20. Generally, to provide data integrity and to ensure storage data object SDO being written to storage data buffer 21 is successfully written by a storage drive 30 to storage medium 40, storage data object SDO buffered in storage data buffer 21 is flushed by host 10, synchronously or periodically, to storage device 30 for storage within storage medium 40. Ensuring buffered storage data object SDO is indeed “hardened” to storage medium 40 mitigates a degree of recovery needed due to a loss of buffered storage data object SDO as a result of an abnormal storage system termination or other storage system error event.
Specifically, some existing flushing techniques involve host 10 synchronously flushing storage data buffer 21 upon a processing completion of host data object HDO, while other existing flushing techniques involve a periodic flushing of storage data buffer 21 by host 10 on a regular basis irrespective of processing of host data object HDO. However, the synchronous or periodic flushing of storage data buffer 21 by host 10 along with a synchronous updating of meta-data associated with a processed host data object HDO interrupts the flow of data to storage medium 40 as well as adds overhead processing. Thus, storage data buffer flushing and meta-data updating, while necessary, interfere with data streaming capabilities of data to storage medium 40. A solution is therefore needed to provide sparser, yet predetermined buffer flushing intervals of storage data buffer 21 to thereby improve upon a storage system throughput and performance while providing a limit on how much recovery must be performed in view of an unsuccessful hardening of storage data object SDO within storage medium 40. Additionally, a solution is needed to eliminate any interference to the flow of data to storage medium 40 by meta-data updates.